82 
WHALE ROOM. 
lateral flukes. The capture o£ this huge animal was so easy that 
the process o£ extermination was accomplished towards the end 
of the eighteenth century, within a short period a£ter its dis- 
covery. Be£ore its extermination, a German naturalist in the 
Russian service, Steller, published an account of its anatomy 
and habits. Many o£ its remains were discovered during the 
voyage of the ‘ Vega ’ in the region where it lived. A nearly 
perfect skeleton from Bering Island is }>laced in the case. The 
Northern Sea-Cow was more than twice as large as either the 
Dugongs or Manatees, attaining a length of about 25 feet ; but 
its habits were similar. 
Fossil Sirenians are known as far back as the Middle Eocene 
period, Eotherium ceg^jptiacinn having been found in Egyptian 
deposits of that age. In later times the members of this order, 
such as llalitlieriiim, were abundant in European seas, and their 
remains occur fossil in Germany, France, and Italy, as well as 
in the bone-bed of the English Red Crag. Remains of many 
representatives of these fossil Sea-Cows are exhibited. 
Order VIII. CETACEA, or Whale>s and Dolphins 
(Gound-Floor.) 
The large size of so many members of this group renders it 
impossible that they can be exhibited in their proper serial 
position, and they are consequently placed in a special annexe, 
leading out from the Bird Gallery on the ground-floor (fig. 48). 
Moreover, since it is almost impracticable to preserve the skins 
of the larger AVhales, owing to the oil with which they are 
saturated, the exhibition of these animals is affected by means 
of models, casts, skeletons, and sketches. 
The order Cetacea is one of the best marked and most 
natural of all the larger groups into which the class Mammalia 
is divided. In all essential characters, by which Mammals are 
distinguished from the other vertebrated animals, such as pos- 
sessing warm blood, breathing air by means of lungs, bringing 
* See ‘ Guide to the Whales, -Porpoises, and Dolphins.’ Price 4c/. 
